Supermarkets discussion

[skyhigh]

When I was at the Coop I must’ve raised that issue about a dozen times. Absolutely unforgivable on an own brand product where the retailer has total control over the packaging

Am I misremembering or was there a recall a few years back due to customers being unable to read the allergen information due to the creasing/overlapping foil? You'd have thought there would be a better way.

 

[GusB]

5020 1600 is the barcode - most people who have worked in retail at some point know it off by heart as they never scan.

Only 8 digits? I'm sure I remember the barcode being the full 13 digits back in the day. They used to supply little cards on which the barcode was printed so that the cashier would be able to scan that instead, but invariably the cards would go missing (or, more likely, they'd all end up at one checkout). Eventually we were given PLU (price lookup) numbers to use instead, but by that time the barcodes were committed to memory.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Only 8 digits? I'm sure I remember the barcode being the full 13 digits back in the day. They used to supply little cards on which the barcode was printed so that the cashier would be able to scan that instead, but invariably the cards would go missing (or, more likely, they'd all end up at one checkout). Eventually we were given PLU (price lookup) numbers to use instead, but by that time the barcodes were committed to memory.

EAN-8 is an alternative barcode standard for physically small products. Its used on stuff like lipsticks

 

[_toommm_]

Only 8 digits? I'm sure I remember the barcode being the full 13 digits back in the day. They used to supply little cards on which the barcode was printed so that the cashier would be able to scan that instead, but invariably the cards would go missing (or, more likely, they'd all end up at one checkout). Eventually we were given PLU (price lookup) numbers to use instead, but by that time the barcodes were committed to memory.

Yep, been 5020 1600 for as long as I remember. Everything else was 500169xxxxxx for Waitrose-own products.

 

[GusB]

EAN-8 is an alternative barcode standard for physically small products. Its used on stuff like lipsticks

I'm well aware of 8 digit barcodes, thank you. They weren't just used for physically small products, though.

Yep, been 5020 1600 for as long as I remember. Everything else was 500169xxxxxx for Waitrose-own products.

I'm starting to feel rather old because it was over 30 years ago that I started my retail career. Most 8 digit codes were on own-brand products while branded goods had 13 digit codes.

 

[GatwickDepress]

5020 1600 is the barcode - most people who have worked in retail at some point know it off by heart as they never scan.

5020 1969 for the caramel egg variant too!

 

[Harpo]

I'm starting to feel rather old because it was over 30 years ago that I started my retail career. Most 8 digit codes were on own-brand products while branded goods had 13 digit codes.

If it it’s any help, the last time I operated a Sainsbury till I was manually punching in prices read by mk1 eyeball from sticky labels.

If I was under pressure from big queues, a bit of missing price label could become a zero resulting in some very unofficial spot bargains. Leading zeros could give serious discounts.

 

[GusB]

If it it’s any help, the last time I operated a Sainsbury till I was manually punching in prices read by mk1 eyeball from sticky labels.

If I was under pressure from big queues, a bit of missing price label could become a zero resulting in some very unofficial spot bargains. Leading zeros could give serious discounts.

Allegedly

 

[Tester]

Speaking of supermarket annoyances, I wish more would place baskets in the aisles in the store (a la Ikea) you know, to help those that might be grabbing a few bits and might need to get a few more rather than struggle round the store trying to hold all the items. Costs nothing and would help to increase sales.

That is absolutely normal in Japan - a country which takes customer service seriously.

 

[Harpo]

Allegedly

I reckon I’m safe from a tea no (JS own label) biscuits meeting by now!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I had some Yorkshire Teabags delivered today from Sainsbury's. A box of 240. I didn't realise this size was still available and assumed they were now 210 per pack everywhere. I wouldn't pay the £8.50 full price though, £5.75 was much better, cheaper in fact than a box of 210 at Tesco for £5.79 (price matched).

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I had some Yorkshire Teabags delivered today from Sainsbury's. A box of 240. I didn't realise this size was still available and assumed they were now 210 per pack everywhere. I wouldn't pay the £8.50 full price though, £5.75 was much better, cheaper in fact than a box of 210 at Tesco for £5.79 (price matched).

...or buy a bulk catering pack off Amazon? There's some pretty good prices out there... most brands have bulk packs like this.

Screenshot below shows what I got for my wife last summer; a pack of 1,100 PG Tips teabags for £21.49.

 

[Hadders]

Stock loss in supermarkets because items can't be scanned easily due to poor packaging is significant. Some examples I'm aware of in recent years:

Eggs - when the barcode was printed straight onto the cardboard boxes the print quality wasn't good enough
Creme Eggs - as mentioned above
Multipack beers - cardboard outer has the multipack barcode but the single cans inside have a 4-pack barcode. If the packaging is defective (happens regularly with manufacturers 'economising') the wrong barcode gets scanned
Thermal printers at counters/loose fruit & veg sections not cleaned correctly resulting in poor printing
Manufacturers printing QR codes (for product info) near to the product barcode. QR code is accidentally scanned so customer/member of staff thinks they've scanned the item but they haven't
Products not packaged correctly - 'flow-wrapped items can be an issue' - Sainsbury's 10 pack chocolate mini rolls is a good example at the moment
Large items that require two hands to pick up eg cat litter, large nultipack beers, soft drinks, large GM items like bedding. Barcode cannot be scanned if you need two hands to lift the item! Location on the barcode needs considering but this is often an afterthought for packaging designers.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Large items that require two hands to pick up eg cat litter, large nultipack beers, soft drinks, large GM items like bedding. Barcode cannot be scanned if you need two hands to lift the item! Location on the barcode needs considering but this is often an afterthought for packaging designers.

Not my experience at my local ALDI and ASDA stores.

 

[londonbridge]

Manufacturers printing QR codes (for product info) near to the product barcode.

It’s not the actual product barcode but since they took over the National Lottery Alwyn have been putting a QR code on scratchcards, close to the barcode that you have to scan on the terminal in order to validate and pay out on a winning card. You have to cover the QR code with your thumb as, more often than not, the scanner will read the QR code and display “invalid barcode” on the screen.

 

[Hadders]

Not my experience at my local ALDI and ASDA stores.

Barcode placement is improving, for example many cereal packs now have a large barcode wrapping around the pack to aid scanning but Aldi and Lidl don't have smart shop handsets for customers to scan items as they shop.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

...or buy a bulk catering pack off Amazon? There's some pretty good prices out there... most brands have bulk packs like this.

Screenshot below shows what I got for my wife last summer; a pack of 1,100 PG Tips teabags for £21.49.

View attachment 195814

I do hope it wasn't a birthday gift!

I do sometimes look for such deals but often find they are not such a good price. I did have some Fairy washing powder delivered this week, just that, on its own, from Amazon whilst I had a Prime one week offer so delivery was 'free'. It was a large box (XXL) but not into 'catering' sizes. Much the same price as the supermarkets.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Multipack beers - cardboard outer has the multipack barcode but the single cans inside have a 4-pack barcode. If the packaging is defective (happens regularly with manufacturers 'economising') the wrong barcode gets scanned

That's just triggered a nightmarish recollection of spending two full days in design sessions for the modification SAP needed to manage the sale of multipacks of beer in Scotland and the differential pricing it brought about compared to English stores. Ugh!

 

[Tramfan]

Stock loss in supermarkets because items can't be scanned easily due to poor packaging is significant. Some examples I'm aware of in recent years:

Eggs - when the barcode was printed straight onto the cardboard boxes the print quality wasn't good enough
Creme Eggs - as mentioned above
Multipack beers - cardboard outer has the multipack barcode but the single cans inside have a 4-pack barcode. If the packaging is defective (happens regularly with manufacturers 'economising') the wrong barcode gets scanned
Thermal printers at counters/loose fruit & veg sections not cleaned correctly resulting in poor printing
Manufacturers printing QR codes (for product info) near to the product barcode. QR code is accidentally scanned so customer/member of staff thinks they've scanned the item but they haven't
Products not packaged correctly - 'flow-wrapped items can be an issue' - Sainsbury's 10 pack chocolate mini rolls is a good example at the moment
Large items that require two hands to pick up eg cat litter, large nultipack beers, soft drinks, large GM items like bedding. Barcode cannot be scanned if you need two hands to lift the item! Location on the barcode needs considering but this is often an afterthought for packaging designers.

I remember getting to a self service checkout with a hot sandwich from the deli at Asda a few years ago, and both the barcode including number were illegible due to grease.

 

[jon0844]

Barcode placement is improving, for example many cereal packs now have a large barcode wrapping around the pack to aid scanning but Aldi and Lidl don't have smart shop handsets for customers to scan items as they shop.

I thought one of them was/is testing self scanning, possibly using a mobile app only though.

 

[styles]

Multipack beers - cardboard outer has the multipack barcode but the single cans inside have a 4-pack barcode. If the packaging is defective (happens regularly with manufacturers 'economising') the wrong barcode gets scanned

On this one, I've tended to find it's more common that the item just doesn't scan and a staff member has to intervene, because most supermarkets don't sell e.g. 1 can of Magners.

I'm guessing there's some exceptions to this, e.g. BrewDog Punk IPA being sold individually as well as by case?

It would presumably be preferable for manufacturers to not put barcodes on multipack items.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not my experience at my local ALDI and ASDA stores.

Aldi/Lidl are particularly good at this - to speed checkout, barcodes are often all the way round the item, included as an element of the packaging design so you'd not notice unless you looked for it. That means it still scans regardless of orientation when passed over the reader.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jan 2026 ==

Barcode placement is improving, for example many cereal packs now have a large barcode wrapping around the pack to aid scanning but Aldi and Lidl don't have smart shop handsets for customers to scan items as they shop.

They've been doing that for years - probably near enough as long as they've used barcodes (before that the cashier was expected to remember and key prices!)

 

[Lewisham2221]

Aldi/Lidl are particularly good at this - to speed checkout, barcodes are often all the way round the item, included as an element of the packaging design so you'd not notice unless you looked for it. That means it still scans regardless of orientation when passed over the reader.

It's part of their efficient business model, to speed up the checkout process, thus requiring fewer staff etc. It doesn't seem to be quite as prevalent now as it was even just a few years ago, though.

 

[SuspectUsual]

It's part of their efficient business model, to speed up the checkout process, thus requiring fewer staff etc. It doesn't seem to be quite as prevalent now as it was even just a few years ago, though.

A bigger proportion of their sales are branded products these days, which obviously won't help.

Do you think the own brand products are also less compliant than they used to be?

 

[Lewisham2221]

A bigger proportion of their sales are branded products these days, which obviously won't help.

Do you think the own brand products are also less compliant than they used to be?

Yes, I buy very few (if any) branded products from Aldi. The number of extra large and wraparound barcodes seems to have declined, albeit the placement of barcodes still seems to be sensible enough to ensure quick scanning with no faffing trying to find the barcode.

I don't visit Lidl anywhere near as often, although I do notice that they seem to stock a lot of branded items these days - in some cases I think they only stock branded versions of some products.

 

[dgl]

I believe Lidl/Aldi checkouts are also designed to not immediately accept another scan of the same item so that the checkout doesn't accidentally scan an item more than once due to the multiple barcodes.

 

[DannyMich2018]

I visited my local Poundland earlier. While some prices were very good I was amazing at how pricey some items were (such as £2 for Fry's Turkish Delight, cheaper in Asda, Morrison's, £1 Fox's Party Rings etc). Many grocery items were pricier than the supermarkets plus the smallest Easter Eggs were £2! If you didn't have any bags no cheap ones too.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I visited my local Poundland earlier. While some prices were very good I was amazing at how pricey some items were (such as £2 for Fry's Turkish Delight, cheaper in Asda, Morrison's...

More "Many Pounds Land" these days?! As you say, the three x 51g size bars multipacks of "Fry's Turkish Delight" are currently £2.00 at Poundland, £1.63 at Asda and B&M Stores, and £1.65 at Morrisons and Tesco. They are £2.00 at Sainsbury's though!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I do hope it wasn't a birthday gift!

No, it's just for my wife's regular tea drinking - it's simply that it was the lowest price per teabag that I could get anywhere. Some supermarkets sell catering packs now, but usually only the 400 or 500 bag ones - naturally, they are priced at the same price as the 1,100 bags are elsewhere...

 

[brad465]

Something I wondered recently, are there any supermarkets that have "mobility scooter hours" or equivalent (I know OAP hours were a thing in covid)? Scooters can be very obstructive and struggle to complete turns down some aisles and through the checkouts. While I wouldn't ban them as the rider needs them, I'd maybe encourage them to shop at certain times. Other shoppers can shop at these hours, and mob scooter users can shop at other times, but if dedicated hours exist conflicts (both physically, verbally and mentally) are less likely to occur.